Steel

HISTORY

Steel is a combination of several metals, but mostly iron with a little carbon. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, it is a major component used in buildings, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, and weapons.

Steel mill By Riksantikvarieämbetet / Pål-Nils Nilsson,

The earliest known production of steel is seen in pieces of ironware excavated from an archaeological site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehoyuk), in modern day Turkey, dating from 1800 BC.

People in India and Sri Lanka were making small amounts of steel more than 2,500 years ago. It was very expensive and was often used to make swords and knives. The reputation of the Seric iron of South India (wootz steel) grew considerably in the rest of the world.

The Haya People of Tanzania have been forging steel for over 2000 years. Investigation of their land led to the discovery of ancient furnaces that were then carbon dated and found to be around 2000 years old. 

In the Middle Ages, steel could be made only in small amounts since the processes took a long time.

Bloomery smelting during the Middle Ages

The large-scale, industrial use of steel began only after more efficient production methods were devised in the 17th century, with the production of blister steel and then crucible steel.

In the 1740s the crucible steel process was improved by Sheffield resident Benjamin Huntsman, allowing a much better production quality. Huntsman used coke rather than coal or charcoal, achieving temperatures high enough to melt steel and dissolve iron, often along with sand, glass, ashes, and other fluxes, in a crucible.

The Bessemer process was developed in the 1850s. This was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. This method meant that mild steel came to be used for most purposes for which wrought iron was formerly used. 

A Bessemer converter in Sheffield, England. Wikipedia

The Bessemer process to improve steelmaking made possible much taller office buildings. The first structure to use steel-girder construction was the 138-foot (42 m) tall, ten-story Home Insurance Company Building in Chicago, which opened in 1885.

The steel guitar, was invented in Hawaii in the late 19th century. The inventor was Joseph Kekuku, who made it by sliding a piece of steel across the strings of a slacked guitar.

In 1892, Andrew Carnegie created the Carnegie Steel Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company grew and on March 2, 1901, it merged with Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company and William Henry "Judge" Moore's National Steel Company to become U.S. Steel.

At one time, U.S. Steel was the largest steel producer and largest corporation in the world. It was capitalized at $1.4 billion,  making it the world's first billion-dollar corporation.

The first major confrontation between modern steel battleship fleets took place in the Battle of the Yellow Sea in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War.

Rustless steel (later to be called "stainless steel") was invented by chance at the Brown Firth Research Laboratories in Sheffield, England, on August 13, 1913 when, while trying to develop non-corrosive gun barrels, Harry Brearley added chromium to steel – thus boosting the city's cutlery industry. The development of the stainless steel made a cutlery set affordable for most households.

A stainless steel gravy boat

In 1924, Citroën produced Europe's first all-steel-bodied car, the B-10.

Low Background Steel, steel forged prior to the 1945 atom bomb explosions, is the only kind of steel that works for various medical and scientific equipment, since the post-nuclear steel is contaminated by radiation.

In 1948 Continental Can Company and Pepsi-Cola launched the first major soft drink in steel cans. Twelve ounces of Pepsi sold for ten cents.

Five hundred thousand American steelworkers went on strike on July 15. 1959, closing nearly every steel mill in the country.

Chairman Mao saw grain and steel production as the key pillars of economic development. He encouraged the Chinese people to smelt steel in their back gardens.

FUN STEEL FACTS

Luxembourg multinational steel manufacturing corporation ArcelorMittal S.A is the world's largest steel producer, with an annual crude steel production of 98.1 million tons as of 2014.

East Chicago is home to ArcelorMittal's Indiana Harbor Works, the largest steel mill in the USA.

Low-background steel is steel from ships that sank prior to the detonation of the first nuclear bomb. Because of that the steel is not contaminated by radiation and harvested to be used in medical equipment or Geiger counters.

Modern day Japanese swordsmiths are required by law to use traditional Katana forging techniques, despite the fact that modern day steel does not need to be folded multiple times.

The smelting of iron ore into steel consumes 55% of commercially produced oxygen.

The Sears Tower in Chicago contains enough steel to build 50,000 automobiles. 

Nearly 70% of the Steel used in the US is recycled from scrap. Steel used in construction has a 90% recycling Rate.

More steel in the United States is used to make bottle caps than to manufacture automobile bodies.

Alabama is the only state with all major natural resources needed to make iron and steel. It is also the largest supplier of cast-iron and steel pipe products.